Tuesday, February 15, 2011

One Nation Under Ale

Sorry to say it, but Fred Arnmisen and Carrie Brownstein's show "Portlandia" doesn't really do the city justice, though, as a comedy of manners and quirks, it can be occasionally amusing. The novel by Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia, comes closer in describing the sustainable utopia that emerges when the states of Oregon, Washington and the northern half of California secede from the United States.

Another effort brands the bio-region that stretches down the West Coast from Alaska to Baja Mexico as Salmon Nation, and we've all heard about the Pacific Rim, a socioeconomic designation for the countries bordering the Pacific Ocean.

Christian Ettinger of Hopworks has borrowed from the independence movement dubbed Cascadia, defined as the territory extending from British Columbia south to Oregon, and created the official beer of the revolution. Called Secession, it is "characterized by an alliance of Northwest hop flavors as formidable as the Cascade Mountain range." Organic and sustainably produced, it's made, as it says on the label, with "malts as dark as a moonless night" and is available in bottles at most stores that carry Hopworks' beers.

But I'd encourage you to get a few friends together, head to a pub that has it on tap and toast what could be a very tasty, not to mention timely, revolution.